Friday night might be the heart of Shabbat – but it doesn’t have to be the whole story.
Earlier, we talked about starting your Shabbat journey by making Friday nights special. Now let’s talk about bringing the peace of Shabbat into Saturday.
If you’ve ever felt the glow of candlelight on Friday fade too quickly into a buzzing Saturday morning inbox, this post is for you. Because the real magic of Shabbat isn’t just in the rituals – it’s in the boundaries we create around them. Boundaries that let us slow down, reset, and step into something sacred…even if only for an hour.
You don’t have to unplug completely or keep halacha perfectly to experience the rest Shabbat offers. In this video, I share simple, real-life ways to extend your Shabbat practice into Saturday in ways that honor your energy, your schedule, and your life as it is.
This isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing things differently.
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Find the transcript below.
Transcript:
So let’s go beyond Friday night.
That peaceful Friday night dinner ends, but Shabbat doesn’t have to.
Come Saturday morning, reality crashes back in. Your boss emails you on the weekend. Group chats light up.
And the to-do list waits.
Modern life doesn’t stop for ancient traditions.
The challenge now is extending the Shabbat mindset without pretending you live in a vacuum.
Hi, I’m Kochava, a Jewish convert and the person behind Building a Jewish Life.com. I help people navigate the conversion process,
and find clarity, courage, and community along the way.
Complete disconnection might not be possible for you right now, but meaningful pauses are.
Start with clear boundaries. If ignoring work emails isn’t fully possible right now, try checking only twice a day.
Create buffers.
Schedule two email checks, say at 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM
instead of constant monitoring.
When you do check, try to focus only on the urgent items.
Flag less critical messages for Sunday instead.
Tech-free fancy meals can happen on Saturday at lunch, just as they did on Friday night.
Even just one hour with your devices off shifts the mood.
Imagine the calm of a table set with real conversation,
the clatter of dishes,
and laughter uninterrupted by buzzing phones.
Keep physical books or board games nearby for inspiration.
The goal isn’t abstinence, but conscious choice.
And try to get outside, take a walk. You can also take a nap. That’s also part of building a Shabbat atmosphere.
Boundaries benefit from physical signals. On Friday night before dinner, change your clothes, wear something different, something nicer.
Move your charger away from your bedside table for Friday night.
These small acts reinforce that things are being done differently right now.
A teacher who placed his work laptop in a drawer until Saturday night found that getting it out was a deliberate reentry point into the everyday world
rather than an automatic habit.
Partial observance still counts. You don’t have to do everything,
and what you do do doesn’t have to be perfect.
Maybe you answer urgent calls, but postpone household chores. Perhaps you avoid spending money, but you check your email at two different times.
One couple kept a Shabbat notebook
for non-urgent thoughts and concerns,
jotting them down instead of acting on them immediately. Over time, they filled fewer pages as their minds adapted to this time of pause.
Each small boundary makes the next one easier.
The first ones are always the hardest, and you will make mistakes. Lots of mistakes.
Your version of Shabbat doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s to matter.
And every step brings you closer to something truly meaningful.
Shabbat Shalom.
